Real
by Son-Gohan-SSJ2
Summary: Peeta and Katniss grow together again after the rebellion and before the epilogue.


**This is my first 'The Hunger Games' fan-fic. Reviews appreciated. Set after the rebellion but before the epilogue of Mockingjay. I didn't like how the book didn't show Peeta and Katniss grow together again. Will Update soon.**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any thing to do with 'The Hunger Games', the characters, setting, themes and ideas etc belong to Suzanne Collins.

Cold, and damp, the sweat runs down my face. My heartbeat slows and I relax my grip on the sheets below me. They're getting better, slowly. Not as vivid as before and not as recurrent, but they are still there - Nightmares.  
My feet grace the floor, I push myself up. The wood feels cold under my skin. Feeling to the window, I rest myself upon a seat and slightly part the curtain.  
The grass is beginning to grow again. Winter's passed, the snow has receded. Yellow dandelions dot the meadow outside. I watch a rabbit dart from behind a tree, just visible in soft moonlight. It stops and looks behind, and then another rabbit follows. They bound to a burrow in the grass and disappear. Game - or at least they used to be, running around the woods outside the district fence. Though tonight it lightens my chest, even brings a smile to my face to watch them run off. Life seems so much more precious to me now, and watching life go on as it always has takes away some of the pain of the nightmares that plague my sleep.  
I notice Peeta is awake as well, sitting by his window sill, watching across the meadow.  
His sleep is troubled too, nightmares attack him and there are still moments when he doesn't know what is real. Looking up, our eyes meet, for a moment. Then he looks away.  
Wait. He used to do that when we went to school, when he was still the boy with the bread. It's odd, but I feel safe sitting here, where he can see me. Eventually my eyes fall closed.

I still feel weak from the rebellion, sometimes my skin hurts where it was burnt. Greasy Sae cooks for me and makes life a little easier, preparing my breakfast every morning. Keeping busy, helping people like me and other returning residents makes dealing with her new life easier I think.  
Peeta brings fresh bread to the back door each morning. We have all made some sort of routine for ourselves. Peeta has begun to bake again, and in the evenings I see him painting through the window. Haymitch is drinking again, not as much as he did years before, but he barely leaves his house. Gale and my mother have moved away, Gale has an important position in district 2 and mother is a nurse in 4. I know why she hasn't come back. Losing so much – Prim, my father, and the village. It's too much for her.  
I have started to go to the woods again. At first it was hard to go back. Gale was always with me, hunting was what brought us together, to provide for our families. We became friends because of it, shared secrets. It made us happy. But Gale is gone now, and I know he isn't going to come back. I don't know if I could deal with it if he did. I'm not upset with him; not angry, but he was right. I would always wonder – Was it his bomb, his brainchild that killed Prim? We could never be as close as we were before the games. We've changed so much since then.

One day Peeta brings the bread by late. I ask him if he'd like to eat with us, momentarily making him uncomfortable, but he accepts. It is the first time since we returned to district 12 that we properly talk - small talk about the progress being made in town and how his paintings are coming along. We didn't notice when Greasy Sae left us, giving us privacy. I can tell Peeta is uneasy at first, I am to, but we relax the longer we stay there.  
Eventually he begins to stay for breakfast more often, at first waiting awkwardly at the door for me to let him in, but he gets more comfortable and comes in of his own accord after a while. He isn't the boy I remember, the boy with the bread. He still hasn't figured out who he is, but we are both happy to have a friend to be around. After we finish he leaves again to go work his new bakery and I go hunting.

It's after breakfast now. Peeta has gone. I tie my boots, grab my bow and game bag and head outside. The roads are clean again. It's been a few months since we returned to 12, and the town is slowly getting rebuilt. Making my way through town, I note the progress. A building down by the ruins of my old house has a sign 'The Hob'. It's been rebuilt, no longer the black market, but a place for people to legally trade. It makes me smile; this is where Greasy Sae goes after finishing with my meals. Just like old times I bring her game to sell, but now it's for fun, not for necessity.  
Parting the wires on the district fence I pass to the other side. The smell of the woods makes me feel at ease, in my element. I make my way, jumping over roots and rocks, weaving between trees. I end up at the lake, a special place for me. I haven't been here for a few weeks now. Its surface is calm. The sun makes broken reflections of the forest on the lake surface, the trees blocking the sun periodically.  
Boots, shirt and pants fall to the ground. I long for this freedom when I'm away from the woods, the freedom to be myself. I jump into the water, and let time pass by.

As the sky becomes orange, I settle at the fields where I used to watch the valley with Gale. We sometimes watched the sunset together. It was always beautiful, amazing.  
"Katniss"  
It comes from behind. He's grinning, and he lies down beside me.  
"Peeta, how'd you know I would be here?"  
"I've seen you here before, and you told me about how special this was to you."  
There's a momentary flicker in his eyes. My chest tightens – this is the first time I've seen that in his eyes since... Before he was hijacked. Those eyes were the eyes of the boy with the bread. Not a shell, not a lost boy trying to figure his life out, but the boy that declared his love for me in front of the whole capitol. The boy that would have given his life to save me.  
And then it's gone.  
"Katniss," he repeats.  
I keep looking at him, "Yeah?"  
"I want to learn how to hunt with you."  
He wants to learn how to hunt? Is it because he still loves me or does he just want to learn for the sake of hunting? Either was I'd be happy to have a hunting partner, "Okay."  
He smiles, and without speaking another word we watch the sunset together. Afterwards he asks, "Sunset orange is my favourite colour, real or not real?"  
"Real," I reply. My chest burns, the way it did on the beach in the Quarter Quell. I'm not sure what I feel, but it makes me happy. Happy that Peeta is at least getting better, figuring out what is real. Happy I have a friend. Just happy.


End file.
